I say: The hadith of a narrator such as him does not fall below the rank of good. Allah knows best. Perhaps what is meant by the hadith is the alteration of the system for selecting the caliph, by making it hereditary. Allah knows best.
1750 — “Whoever has me as his protector has Ali as his protector. O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him and oppose whoever opposes him.”
It has been reported in hadiths from Zayd ibn Arqam, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, Buraydah ibn al-Ḥuṣayb, Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib, Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī, al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās, Anas ibn Mālik, Abū Saʿīd, and Abū Hurayrah.
- The hadith of Zayd, through five routes from him:
The first: from Abū al-Ṭufayl, from him. He said: When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, departed from the Farewell Pilgrimage and stopped at Ghadīr Khumm, he ordered that several thorn trees be cleared. Then he said: “It is as though I have been summoned and have answered. I am leaving among you the two weighty trusts, one greater than the other: the Book of Allah and my family, the people of my household. So consider how you will treat them after me, for they will not part until they come to me at the Basin.” Then he said: “Indeed, Allah is my Protector, and I am the guardian of every believer.” He then took Ali’s hand—may Allah be pleased with him—and said: “Whoever I am his guardian, this man is his guardian. O Allah, befriend whoever befriends him and oppose whoever opposes him.”
It was recorded by al-Nasāʾī in Khaṣāʾiṣ ʿAlī (p. 15), al-Ḥākim (3/109), Aḥmad (1/118), Ibn Abī ʿĀṣim (1365), and al-Ṭabarānī (4969–4970), through Sulaymān al-Aʿmash, who said: Ḥabīb ibn Abī Thābit narrated to us from him. Al-Ḥākim said: “Authentic according to the criteria of the two Shaykhs.”
I say: Al-Dhahabī made no comment on it. It is as he said, were it not for the fact that Ḥabīb practised tadlīs and narrated it with an ambiguous ‘from’ formulation.